Every time someone questions whether tariffs are working, the same counterargument surfaces: give it time. There is actually some evidence to support that patience.
The most consequential reshoring happening right now is in semiconductors, not the most visible industry, but arguably the most important one. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is building a $65 billion chip fabrication complex in Arizona. Samsung has committed $4.7 billion to expanding its Texas facilities. Taiwan itself has pledged $250 billion in new U.S. semiconductor and technology investments. These are not announcements. They are construction projects.
Steel tariffs, reinstated at 25 percent, are driving domestic production. Sectors including EV batteries, renewable energy equipment, and defense manufacturing are seeing genuine reshoring momentum.
The honest challenges are real too. American manufacturing wages average $25 to $30 an hour compared to roughly $6 to $7 in China, a gap that tariffs narrow but do not close. Nearly 500,000 manufacturing jobs currently sit unfilled because modern factories require robotics, digital systems, and AI skills that the existing workforce hasn't been trained for yet. Many manufacturers, facing cost pressure right now, are choosing to raise prices rather than build new domestic facilities.
What history suggests is that rebuilding an industrial base is not a year's work. After World War II, the American manufacturing base that came to dominate the global economy took two decades to fully mature. The semiconductor factories going up in Arizona won't be fully operational until 2027 or 2028.
But you have to start somewhere.